It's been a little bit since our last 2012 Hero Factory review, but fear not! We have not forgotten about you guys. Today Sisen takes a look at the big set from the first wave - Black Phantom. Will this villain mastermind his escape or will he end up back in jail on the toy stores' shelves?

PresentationFrom the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

Enter the Black Phantom! There is no fancy new shiny packaging for this awesome new set, but a box is a box is a box. The fellow known as the Black Phantom is eerily posed in a mist on the front of the box ready to fight whatever Heroes come his way. Surprisingly enough there is no mention of the piece count, just an age range and model number. There is also information about 500 game points.

The back of the box gives a breakdown of Black Phantom and his components. On the back of the box there is also a side by side display of the other sets. The lineup shows which sets can be combined for combination models, which is cool since that information is usually only available in the back of the respective instruction book.

BuildingHalf the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

Building the Black Phantom is just like any other set, and it has a fairly familiar build if you built the Fire Lord. Before you start connecting the leg bone to the hip bone, you have to dump out all the pieces and open the bag.

The foot bone is connected to the ankle bone. The ankle bone is connected to the leg bone. The leg bone is connected to the hip bone. Everything from the feet up assembles nicely and is a pretty straightforward and basic process of interlocking pieces.

There is a fair amount of black armor that is added onto the Phantom, and it helps to add on bulk to his body. After you add on the armor all that is left, is the weaponry and final touches.

Boomblackphantomshakalaka!

Set DesignNow that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

There is a great deal of new pieces that are exclusive to Black Phantom and the new line of Heroes. I am a sucker for a mace or anything weapon related, and the black katana with trans-bright green on it takes the cake. While it might be called a weapon-saw sword blade do not poke in eye thing, I prefer to call it a katana or maybe an energy blade. It's cool whatever you call it really.

There are a lot of other good armor pieces included as well. There's a new black chest piece and the new add on round armor as well, which is another of my favorite pieces for this new line of sets. The Black Phantom's helmet is a fairly cool design too. Everything pictured above is a new piece or new color. Not pictured are the two trans-neon green armor pieces which are used on the back weapon protrusions and the clear neon green tubing pieces as well.

All in all the set has a well-rounded okay design. Personally I just love the weapon and armor pieces and... I almost forgot! The little crab guy!

I do not know why but I find him adorable and just want to hold him forever and ever. The silver head that makes up his body is the same piece used for Thornraxx's head but in black.

The only real gripes I have with the design overall is the similarity it bares to Fire Lord and the clumsiness of the weapon. Do not take me the wrong way, I love the weapon and think it is an awesome addition. It is just a bit cumbersome and can be a bit tasking to pose effectively. I suppose that does not matter when you are a villain trying to smash bang slash stuff...

PlayabilityThe other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

Black Phantom is fun to play with offers some cool potential when acting out battles. Just look at him pose, ready to strike, wait what's that? It looks like Rocka is here to save the day before anything dastardly and exciting even happened!

Well unfortunately I am unable to fully test the playability of Phantom Lord. Wait, Phantom Lord, I mean Black Phantom. Rocka's handcuffed him and is taking him away; I am not going to aid and abet a criminal. Wait! Oh no! It looks like Thornraxx has teamed up with Black Phantom and escaped!

Be on the lookout for these two villains!

Final ThoughtsOnce it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

ProsWhat's to like?

Nifty crab guy

Katana blade and mace weapon

Plethora of armor

All the different pieces

ConsWhat's not to like?

Fairly similar to Fire Lord, Black Phantom's alias is now Phantom Lord

Reuse of over the shoulder blade weapon things

Cumbersome weapon

Black Phantom is a pretty cool set all around. While I was not a big fan of him at first sight, my perspective changed after building him. There is a lot of great potential with the pieces that make him up and it was a fun set. Stay tuned there is another review coming soon, and a hero remains...

Be sure to thank Sisen for this review in the Talkback, and big thanks go out to LEGO for providing this set. Stay tuned, of course, for more Hero Factory and LEGO reviews as well as all the latest ABS news!